Lawmakers urge UK to help end S Sudan crisis

LONDON: The British government must take urgent action to help end the “horrendous crisis” in South Sudan, where men have been castrated in fighting and women have drowned hiding from militias, UK lawmakers said in an open letter on Wednesday.

Africa’s newest nation plunged into civil war in December 2013 after a long-running feud between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, exploded into violence, much of it along ethnic lines.

The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued forcing more than 1.1 million people to flee in the biggest cross-border exodus from any central African conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“All sides have been complicit in the killing or castration of men and boys,” wrote Stephen Twigg, Chair of the International Development Committee, a parliamentary watchdog.

“These are horrendous acts of violence added to a litany of other sexual and gender based violence, already endemic in South Sudan.”

In his letter to the Department of International Development (DFID) and the Foreign Office, Twigg said he was shocked at the “alarming numbers” of civilians displaced or who have fled to neighbouring countries because of the violence. DFID said it had this year pledged $127.06 million to provide food, water and health services to the South Sudanese.